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If kids won’t read the Bard, it’s time to act

Faced with the toughest pupils, forget the beauty of language and show them that Shakespeare teaches us how to live

Simon Callow

June 11 2011, 1:01am, The Times

I agreed to take part in Jamie’s Dream School partly because I was flattered, of course, but mostly because of my conviction that no writer has given a better account of the human condition than Shakespeare, and that we can all find ourselves in his work. At the time I was touring a one-man play, Being Shakespeare, which attempts to take the audience into his world and mind.

Using as a structure Jaques’ great speech from As You Like It describing the seven ages of Man, I took the audience through Shakespeare’s life, but also through all of our lives. Their recognition of the accuracy of his observation, of his unerring ability to find the words to describe what we all know, was deeply satisfying.…